When you next look up at the night sky, you may see a bright spec in the distance, and that bright spec is set to get a lot brighter.
The spec of which I speak is Software Defined Networking (SDN) and is set to change the network as we know it forever and perhaps a lot sooner than first thought.
With the “commoditisation” of Pure SDN solutions and hybrid SDN solutions which also harness custom ASICS, things will change! Maybe not today, not tomorrow but they will change.
We have plenty of warning about this meteor strike, not to try and divert it, as impact is inevitable, but we have fair warning to prepare for it and to evolve our traditional networking skill set in time.
I do not see the results of this strike, being an immediate extinction level event for traditional networkers but more like a huge lake gradually drying up.
At the moment the lake is huge and teaming with life but gradually as businesses move towards SDN solutions, the traditional networking lake will slowly start to dry up until a few who are unwilling to adapt are flapping in a pool of mud awaiting their imminent fate.
This is not by any means meant to be a doom and gloom “End of the traditional networking world is nigh” type post, but a positive post that the networking world is about to get real interesting and bought kicking and screaming into the modern world of flexibility, agility and fast provisioning. And I for one am not close enough to retirement age to ignore it, and am actually quite looking forward to the new Challenge.
Having attended Cisco Live Europe and VMware PEX this month, I’ve spoken at length to the relevant business units, and I am very much encouraged by the commitments and training road maps being put in place to bring us “Traditional Networkers” on this new and exciting journey ahead.
Colin
UCSguru.com 
You are right SDN will takeover the traditional Networking. This is similar to smartphones taking over feature phones and Cameras in smartphone took over Compact Digital Camera’s Pushing Companies Like Nokia and Sony to Bankruptcy.
Since you have interacted both with Cisco and Vmware, so what’s your independent view on Cisco ACI and Vmware NSX. Which approach is going to win Cisco’s Hardware Approach or Vmware’s software Approach.
So here’s my take. I think that as software defined networking and software defines storage take hold, everybody will have to know about everything. While there is a basic provisioning task of giving hardware items the plumbing they need, the software defined parts CAN’T be the preserve of specialist tradesmen. We’ll need clever people like you to set up a UCS chassis with paths to the DC network and storage services, but then each server/blade will carry a hefty payload of “infrastructure software” that makes it useable.
This is all really exciting and new 🙂
I agree. I tend to setup the UCS and be the “sage of the infrastructure” and the server team does 95% of the work. I just tackle hard issues and add vlan’s to port-channels etc.
Can I quote you on my blog realworlducs.com? Would like to reference this post and yuor comment.
Of Course Craig, appreciate the Promo 🙂
Is UCS the biggest win for SDN yet? I would say so. No reason to be scared, there will always be OSPF and Port-Channels and spanning tree loops… oh wait did I say “Don’t be scared?” lol